RG08.1 Hillary’s legacy

If Hillary moves quickly, she can save her legacy. I know you don’t think she has a legacy and neither do I. But she does, and in this instance, that’s all that matters. She’s not likely to win the Democratic presidential nomination, and if she does win it, there’s every reason to fear that it will be perceived as underhanded by enough people on both sides that she could lose the November election. She and the primary season machine she built with her husband was designed to protect a frontrunner. Forbidding winner-take-all delegate apportioning removed the possibility of any latecomers surprising the leader with fresh legs. Never did her team of strategists consider a scenario when the frontrunner would be anyone but her. So she can’t win, or at least she can’t win well. But she can lose, and probably will. Or she can lose well. If she can exit with enough panache, and with a unique twist, she can insist that her name be entered into the lexicon. It’s likely to happen whether she wants it or not. But what will it mean to “be hillaryed” — right now that’s up to her. Will it be a rough equivalent of being Swift-boated? Hillaryed. Pilloried. It’s all the same. Or will it mean “fought from ahead, but helped from behind”? If she redeploys her considerable assets to help her former opponent, she might still make an indelible mark not only on a generation, but on the language itself.